Someone has tried hard to make Abu Dhabi logical. The city planners used the traditional American grid system for street numbering; those running parallel to Airport Road (longways down the island) have even numbers, streets parallel to the Corniche (aka 1st Street) carry odd numbers.
Then it all goes pear-shaped. Never mind that the street network is based on a grid within a grid, so while blue signs indicate main roads there are also green signs for roads within the sector. So there may be only one 4th Street on a blue sign, but there will be a few dozen 4th Streets on green. No-one talks about green streets.
Just as well, because the rest of street life is complicated enough. Take Salam Street, or possibly Al Salam Street. It may be hell right now, but it’s also the Eastern Ring Road. Which is not the same as East Road, aka 4th Street, aka New Airport Road – except below Al Falah Street (aka 9th Street, Old Passport Road or Juwazat Street, but not to the east of 2nd Street when it is Al Manhal Street) when it (that’s 4th Street, remember?) becomes Lulu Street.
New Airport Road is next to Old Airport Road, which is also Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum Road and 2nd Street and what most people would know as Airport Road, Old or otherwise. Of course the airport in question has no relevance at all to the international airport we know and love – the Old and New Airport Roads went to the original airport, the former Bateen air base
which is now being reborn as a city airport for private jets. Not that it’s in Al Bateen, of course, but you probably guessed that.
Then there’s Zayed The Second Street. What do you mean, you’ve never heard of it? It’s on the maps, and even on some street name signs. Not on many though. You might know it better as Electra Street, or 7th Street, or even Sheikh Zayed The First Street. Which is also Khalidiyah Street, but which in theory doesn’t start till you’ve got over Airport Road (see above).
The short routes across the island with odd-numbered streets tend to be a bit more logical than that. Until you hit 11th Street, which starts as Al Bateen Street and morphs into Hazaa Bin Zayed Street, the far end of which is Defence Road and which will eventually end up on Reem Island via the existing bridge.
And of course all the roads on Reem will be Very Sensibly Numbered. Or Named. Or both.
[writer] Wendy Rhode
[Originally published in Abu Dhabi Week vol 2 issue 15]
